This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Environment: The Drillers are Coming
Robotics: War of the Machines
Environment: Clean Energy from Dirty Water
Medicine: DNA Drugs Grow Up
Psychology: How Babies Think
PDFs of all the papers mentioned on this release can be found in the relevant journal’s section of http://press.nature.com. Press contacts for the Nature journals are listed at the end of this release.
Warning: This document, and the Nature journal papers to which it refers, may contain information that is price sensitive (as legally defined, for example, in the UK Criminal Justice Act 1993 Part V) with respect to publicly quoted companies. Anyone dealing in securities using information contained in this document, or in advance copies of a Nature journal’s content, may be guilty of insider trading under the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
PLEASE CITE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN AND OUR WEBSITE www.scientificamerican.com AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO www.scientificamerican.com
The full articles highlighted below are available on the Nature Press Site: http://press.nature.com/press and are also now live at www.scientificamerican.com
[1] Environment: The Drillers are Coming (p 82)
The Marcellus shale—an expansive formation stretching from Tennessee to New York—could contain enough natural gas to supply the US for more than 40 years at today's consumption rates. But, tapping the deep shale formations for gas has set scientists, companies, regulators, and environmental advocates arguing over controversial techniques that could pollute the environment and drinking water.
In this month's issue of Scientific American, Mark Fischetti discusses the science and politics of fracking—the process of forcing high pressure water and chemicals into deep wells underground to loosen shale rock and free natural gas. Thousands of vertical wells have already extracted natural gas from the shale's easy-to-reach deposits, though with newer technology and improved procedures horizontal drilling is allowing for much more gas to be extracted economically.
However, horizontal drilling has come under fire as there is increased concern that the fracking process contaminates drinking water supplies. Since the use of horizontal drilling is accelerating, full disclosure of chemicals injected into the earth during the extraction process, and tighter regulations, could address some of the health and environmental concerns.
Author contact:
Mark Fischetti (Editor Scientific American, New York City, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 212 451 8849
E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Robotics: War of the Machines (p 56)
“Never send a human to do a machine’s job,” advises Agent Smith in The Matrix. In a feature in this month’s Scientific American, P. W. Singer discusses the rise of machines in combat and the ethical and legal issues that have also arisen as new technologies that once remained firmly in the realms of science fiction become part of reality.
The use of robots, some as small as a hummingbird and others as long as a football field, in battle raises the question of what exactly “going to war” means and whether distancing human fighters from the theater of conflict will make it easier for us to start wars. Accountability is also a concern. What happens if there is a glitch in a machine designed to kill humans? Who is to blame?
In an accompanying perspective, the Scientific American editors argue that although we cannot “put the genie back into the bottle,” putting a hold on further development of autonomous robots could limit the potential problems.[bad choice of word because battle robots are designed to cause damage]
Author contact:
P. W. Singer (Brookings Institution, Washington D.C., USA)
Tel: +1 202 797 6000
E-mail: [email protected]
Editors at Scientific American are available to comment on this topic [Perspective piece]
Please contact the Press Office
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[3] Environment: Clean Energy From Dirty Water (p 64)
Each day Santa Rosa, California, and its surrounding communities generate 200 megawatts of electricity—comparable to the output of a medium-size power plant—without discharging any greenhouse gases or creating any pollutants. Jane Braxton Little explains in Scientific American this month how this city is taking the lead in generating clean electricity from wastewater.
Injecting treated wastewater into hot, underground reservoirs heats up the water, creating steam, which is used by turbines to generate clean electricity and reduce the need to dispose of the wastewater. This unique geothermal power arrangement can pump 20 million gallons of wastewater a day through a system that generates energy and saves the city hundreds of millions of dollars in treatment costs.
Little delves into what lessons can be learned from this geothermal power plant complex and what difficulties still remain. For instance, small earthquakes can be caused in the area surrounding the generating complex, and cities need to account for such problems.
Author contact:
Jane Braxton Little (Greenville, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 530 284 6516
E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Medicine: DNA Drugs Grow Up (p 48)
A decade ago vaccines containing DNA were tested head-to-head against other types of vaccines and came up short. In this month’s Scientific American a feature reports new developments in the field of DNA vaccines and medicines, looking at how improvements in the vaccines and new delivery methods have transformed the potential of DNA for protecting against and treating conditions that currently lack effective therapies.
The new vaccines and drugs are comprised of plasmids—DNA rings designed to carry select genes into cells—and offer many advantages over other vaccines. As Matthew Patrick Morrow and David Weiner explain, they can be manufactured faster than traditional vaccines—the authors point out that the recent skirmish with H1N1 virus highlighted a need for vaccines that can be generated quickly. DNA vaccines may not require refrigeration, an important consideration during transport and storage. Plus, the immune system is unlikely to attack the plasmids themselves, meaning they can be used to deliver many kinds of treatments.
The improved DNA drugs are now marketed for use in animals—in fact, scientists have already successfully treated melanoma in dogs—and the plasmids are also in late-stage human trials. The authors conclude that DNA therapies and vaccines have a "bright future."
Author contact:
Matthew Patrick Morrow
(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Tel: +1 215 898 5780
E-mail: [email protected]
David Weiner (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Tel: +1 215 349 8365
E-mail: [email protected]
[5] Psychology: How Babies Think (p 76)
Babies are very smart. As Alison Gopnik explains in this month’s Scientific American, “scientists have discovered that even the youngest children know more than we would ever have thought possible.” For instance, babies can understand the minds of other people, grasp cause and effect, understand everyday physics, and learn about the world around them in the way that scientists do—by conducting experiments and analyzing the statistics of what they observe.
Starting thirty years ago scientists began to focus more on the actions and reactions of babies and young children and less on what they said in answer to questions. This new tack opened the door for a better understanding of how babies think. One important finding has been that babies are unconsciously conducting their own statistical analyses to make inferences about the things and people around them. These sophisticated though unconscious mathematical abilities are behind the amazing feats of learning that humans achieve in their earliest years. Understanding these thinking processes “not only changes our ideas about babies, it gives us a fresh perspective on human nature itself,” explains Gopnik.
Author contact:
Alison Gopnik (University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 510 642 2752
E-mail: [email protected]
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